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Being a professional
today means becoming
interprofessional
Dr. Hans Schuman
Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
Tilburg, 5 februari 2010
1
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Hans Schuman
Fontys OSO
Heliomare EducationWEC Council
Copyright [2010] Fontys Hogescholen
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The philosophers have only interpretedthe world in various ways. The point
however is to change it.
Epitaph Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery,London.
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Contents
Chapter 1: The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and
Interagency Collaboration 7Introduction 7
The Research Group 9
The Lectorate 10
Chapter 2: The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and
Interagency Collaboration 13
Introduction 13
Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Collaboration 14
A Challenge for Higher Professional Education 15
A Common Language 16
Support 17
Chapter 3: The Research Programme 21
Introduction 21
Method of Working 22Collective Ambitions 23
Ambitions of Fontys OSO 23
Ambitions of the Helioskoop Foundation 23
Ambitions of Heliomare Research and Development 24
Ambitions of the WEC Council 24
Ambitions of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and
Interagency Collaboration 24
Chapter 4: Practice-oriented Research 27
Introduction 27
Practice-oriented Research 28
Dialogue with the Work Field 29
The Rise of a New Professionalism 30
Focus on the Implementation Process 31
Quality of Practice-oriented Research 32
References 35
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Chapter 1
The Lectorate in Inter-
professional, Interdisciplinaryand Interagency Collaboration
Introduction
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Netherlands Association
of Universities of Applied Sciences introduced lectorateto the Dutch universities
of applied sciences in 2001. A lector has specific expertise in a particular field of
study. An important of a lectorate is the research group (in Dutch: kenniskring).
A research group is always made up of a number of lecturers at a university of
applied sciences; some research groups also include staff of external partners.
The members of the research group have multiple roles in the areas of teaching,
research, consultancy and training. Lectorates have a supporting role in knowledge
innovation in higher professional education. Practice-oriented research is a core
task of all lectorates.
The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
came about as a result of a special collaboration between Fontys OSO, a post-
graduate teacher training college offering Masters courses in Special Educational
Needs, Heliomare Education which provides special education services and the
WEC Council (Council for Expertise Centres) (see Figure 1 Collaborating Partners).
Fontys OSO and its partner organisations have agreed the research domain to
be studied and the capacity and resources that will be made available for this
purpose.The partners are committed to working together for a period of four
years. Administrative coordination between the partner organisations takes place
twice a year.
Fontys OSO is theexpertise centre in the Netherlands in the field of specialist
professional development for education professionals working with pupils with
special needs. It is the ambition of Fontys OSO to facilitate life-long learning for
all education professionals by working with them. To this end it offers a Masters
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
course in Special Educational Needs which students can study either full time orpart time; it organises study days and conferences; it offers tailor-made courses
and services in school development among other fields; and its four lectoratescarry out practice-oriented research.
HeliomareEducation
LectoratesFontys
Universityof Applied
Sciences(UoASc)
Peripatetic
Supervision
Masterstudents
HelioskooplectoratesFontysOSO
de Zevensprong
HelioskoopFoundation
de Alk
de Ruimte
WEC Council
Fontys OSO
Lectorate
Research
Group
HeliomareR&D
Figure 1 Collaborating Partners
The Helioskoop Foundation, which Heliomare Education is part of, comprises
schools that offer education, support and guidance to children and young people
with physical, learning or multiple disabilities, ranging in age from 4 to 20 years.
As well as Heliomare Education, the Helioskoop Foundation comprises de Alk(a
school for students aged 4-20 with severe learning disabilities in Alkmaar), de
Zevensprong(a school for students with severe learning disabilities in Beverwijk),
de Ruimte(a school for physically disabled students in Bergen) and an organisation
providing peripatetic supervision.The Research and Development Department of
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The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
Heliomare is also collaborating with the lectorate.
The WEC Council is an association that promotes the interests of special
education. It formulates strategic policy, promotes the interests of special schoolsand encourages special schools and the peripatetic supervision service to deliver
top quality services.
The lectorate has agreed with its partners to undertake practice-oriented
research that will contribute to the construction, sharing and dissemination of
knowledge relating to the research domain interprofessional, interdisciplinary
and interagency collaboration. The partners working together within this
research domain have distinguished three fields on which the practice-oriented
research should be focused:
peripatetic supervision;
support and guidance for students who exhibit challenging behaviour and
who have moderate or severe learning disabilities; and
transition of students with physical, and sometimes multiple, disabilities to
various modes of living, working, leisure time and participation in society.
The concept of interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration refers mainlyto the work of professionals. It should not be forgotten that the purpose of this
research work is always to support students and their parents or carers. This
support is directed towards the emancipation, participation and empowerment
of the individuals involved so that they become strong and knowledgeable
enough to take more and more responsibility for the choices that are made and
the associated decision-making process (Callahan and Bradley Garner, 1997). The
concept of support is increasingly taking centre stage in place of the concept of
care (van Gennep, 2000). I will return to that in Chapter 2.
The Research Group
The research group comprises 10 members: three from Fontys OSO, six from
the Helioskoop Foundation and one from Heliomare Rehabilitation. All members
of the research group devote one day a week to practice-oriented research and
participating in other activities for the lectorate. Smaller research groups have
been formed for each subfield in which one research group member from Fontys
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
OSO works with at least two employees of the Helioskoop Foundation. Membersof the research group were selected for their knowledge and experience with
the research domain and one or more of the three subfields. It was also essentialthat they aspired to do practice-oriented research within the frame of reference
of the lectorate.
The research group is making a contribution through practice-oriented research
(see Chapter 4) to improving the quality of the Masters Special Educational Needs
courses at Fontys OSO and of professional practice in the Helioskoop Foundation
schools. The research group aims in this way to contribute to strengthening
the position of children and young people with physical or other disabilities
in the education system and in wider society. Members of the research group
work closely with colleagues who teach on the Masters Special Educational
Needs courses at Fontys OSO and with professional practitioners working for the
Helioskoop Foundation. They also use their existing networks, which they expand
with relevant new contacts where this adds value to their work as practice-
oriented researchers in the lectorate. The research group takes information,
inspiration and encouragement from current social and other developments for
the benefit of its research and other work, as well as from relevant scientific andpractice-oriented research of colleagues and other institutions, not only in the
Netherlands but also abroad. Members of the research group have a duty to
publicise their research findings, both to the general public and to professionals
in higher professional education, schools and special schools, care and social
services, through for instance presentations and publications. Important themes
underpinning the day-to-day work of the research group are: innovation;
professional development; knowledge-construction, sharing and dissemination;
empowerment and diversity.
The Lectorate
The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
can be seen as the practical implementation by Fontys OSO, Heliomare Education
and the WEC Council of a number of recommendations formulated by the Dutch
Education Council with a view to strengthening cooperation between knowledge
organisations. The recommendations are:
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The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
Education practitioners should be recognised as co-constructors of knowledge.
Knowledge communities should be developed in which constructors of
knowledge, intermediaries and education practitioners collaborate.Knowledge management of and by schools should be encouraged, partly
through facilities for incumbent and student teachers who aspire to develop
into internal knowledge-constructors in their own schools.
When constructing knowledge there should be more focus on implementation
through more detailed operationalisation of the current requirements on
the practical relevance of academic research.
There should be more recognition for Dutch-language publications
(Education Council, 2003, pp.13-14).
This lectorate aspires to be a knowledge community as envisaged by the Education
Council (see Figure 2 The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and
Interagency Collaboration as a knowledge community).
Figure 2: The Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration as a knowledge community
Overigewerkveld
WEC Raad
Overige HBO enUniversitair Onderwijs
Kenniskring
Interdisciplinair
werken
Lectoraat
Interdisciplinairwerken
Fontys HBOFontys OSO
Lectoraten Fontys OSO
WerkveldHelioskoop enHeliomare R&D
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Chapter 2
The Importance of Inter-
professional, Interdisciplinaryand Interagency Collaboration
Introduction
Rotmans warned that
from a social perspective our society has a number of stubborn problems
(sometimes called wicked problems) for which no ready-made solutions
exist, but for which a new kind of knowledge needs to be developed.
Problems to do with water supply, climate change, health care, mobility,
employment, migration, energy supply and agriculture cannot be tackled
or solved with recourse to a single scientific discipline. Problems like this
demand a broad, multi- and interdisciplinary approach.
(Rotmans, 2009).
This statement would seem to also apply without qualification to the complex
problems that children and young people with moderate and severe functional
limitations come across in their daily lives when they want to use education,
medical or social services. It is virtually automatic that they have to deal with
a number of professionals from different disciplines. The same applies to
their parents or carers. These professionals use discipline-specific procedures,
protocols, interventions and methods and they use jargon specifically developed
for their own field. For the students and their parents or carers, it cannot be
taken for granted that they will be able to take control, experience ownership
and participate in the decision-making in such an environment. This is often the
case for the education and other professionals involved too. The main question
for the professionals would seem to be:
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
How can the different professionals from the divergent positions of their different disciplinesconverge to support students and their parents or carers, on the basis of a common language
and common objectives?
Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Two concepts are used to describe collaboration of professionals from different
disciplines: multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration. Multidisciplinary
collaboration assumes a form of collaboration between professionals from
different disciplines that is primarily geared to sharing knowledge. Interdisciplinary
collaboration assumes that the collaborating professionals are willing and able
to integrate the knowledge contributed from the separate disciplines, allowing
new knowledge and innovative approaches to be developed to solve a particular
problem more adequately and effectively (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004).
Interdisciplinary collaboration assumes an approach that involves more dialogue,
first and foremost with the person to whom the support is directed and his/her
social environment. Their support needs are mainly characterised by
the individual nature of client issues, the matching dialogue betweenclient and professional, and the offering of professional care and support
geared to the clients quality of life.
(Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, p.5).
The professionalism needed for this role, according to the VGN, the sector
organisation for care and social services for disabled people, has the following
characteristics:
It rests on evidence-based knowledge acquired through formal and
comprehensive training, which includes training in practice-oriented
skills (training on the job).
It takes place within frameworks, such as standards for good practice,
professional codes, professional profiles, protocols and rules (including
complaints handling schemes) specified by the profession, sector and/
or the government.
It is characterised by reflection, systemisation of experience, peer
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The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
review and support, in-service training and the pursuit of quality
improvement.
It has its own autonomy and responsibilities.
It is practised for payment as a rule (Idem, pp.9).
To this can be added that this new professionalism takes shape within a sphere of
sometimes conflicting interests and an unequal power structure (Oliver, 1996).
There has long been discussion and much has been written about the importance
of interdisciplinary collaboration for the client, but achieving, implementing
and maintaining it seems to be more difficult (Mitchell and Crittenden, 2000).
Clients need for professionals from various disciplines to collaborate more
and more effectively only seems to increase. The amount of knowledge being
constructed, not only in research universities and universities of applied sciences,
but increasingly in the schools and institutions themselves, is rising exponentially.
This is the case for a number of specialisms (Kahn and Prager, 1994). It should be
seen as a positive development, from the perspective of improving the quality of
support, guidance and social services. At the same time there is an increased riskthat the teaching and support given on the basis of this constructed knowledge
and experience gained will be fragmented and inconsistent, undermining the
capacity of the students and their parents or carers to exercise control. From the
perspective of the students well-being and quality of life, this is not a desirable
situation.
A Challenge for Higher Professional Education
Higher professional education in particular seems to be able to fulfil a key role
in equipping professionals to be able to function effectively in a multidisciplinary
context, which increasingly calls for interprofessional, interdisciplinary and
interinstitutional collaboration. Research universities mainly focus on the separate
disciplines, although there too interdisciplinary collaboration and interdisciplinary
research are becoming increasingly important. Specialisation is necessary, but so
is interdisciplinary collaboration. Higher professional education could develop
examples of good practice and the competences to go with that and then
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
translate these to its Masters courses, other courses and contractual activities.
The competences that professionals need to collaborate effectively and efficientlyinclude: being willing to leave their own territory; wanting to discover new
knowledge and experiential domains; learning to master a different language;
being willing and able to accommodate different perspectives; being willing
and able to accommodate anothers expertise; and being able to recognise and
appreciate the others expertise as complementary and enriching (Kaye and
Crittenden, 2005). It seems to be largely a matter of having a certain professional
attitude and ethos which places particular emphasis on cooperation. We believe
that this kind of attitude is a distinguishing feature of the Professional Masters
Programme in Special Educational Needs, which also requires students to identify
and acknowledge the scope and limits of their own professionalism and then to
act on that (Ibid.). There is a clear link here with the Lectorate in Professional
Values in Critical Dialogue headed by Dr. Gaby Jacobs.
A Common Language
Learning to use a different language seems to be a condition for interdisciplinarycollaboration. In order to offer effective education to pupils with functional
limitations (some of them complex), linked to good support and services from
other disciplines, it is essential that one professional understands what another
is talking about. Only then will one professional be able to connect his/her own
contribution to fellow professionals contributions, to produce an integrated
support programme for the student. This common language is also important
for the dialogue between students and their parents/carers on one side and the
professionals on the other side. The International Classification of Functioning,
Disability and Health Children and Youth (ICF-CY) could serve as the framework
for this (RIVM, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment,
2008). Heliomare Rehabilitation, for instance, is already using this. The ICF-CY
starts with a clear vision, that is widely shared and supported internationally,
for the support of, for instance, people with severe functional limitations.
The ICF-CY uses the English term disability. This word has no equivalent in
Dutch. The word handicap especially evokes negative connotations, at least in
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The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
international circles. That is why the VGN proposed using serious limitations in
functioning and people with disabilities (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, pp.10).
These functional limitations are usually complex, because they affect severalaspects of functioning, are long-term in nature, highly individual, and because
they lead to a certain dependence on special support (Ibid.).
The ICF-CY offers a model with which complex problems of people with
disabilities can be described and understood (Buntinx, 2007, pp. 11). The ICF-CY
champions a common language for all disciplines involved in the support and
guidance of students and their parents or carers. The point of departure for
this language is the everyday activities of a person with a moderate or severe
functional limitation. The purpose of the common language is to develop a
shared and consistent, supportive climate and system that is interdisciplinary,
thereby increasing the chance that barriers hindering or preventing the person
from participating in an inclusive society can be broken down. A supportive
climate like this, where communication with all stakeholders takes place in a
comprehensible language, would also seem to be more accessible to the disabled
person and his/her support network. This probably makes it easier for her /himto exercise control. On that basis it appears possible to develop educational
and support practices which are in line with the UN Declaration of December
2006, which stresses the right of people with a disability (including children
and young people) to be actively involved in all decisions that affect them (UN,
2006). The needs of the client and the outcomes of the collaboration in the
sense of improved quality of life could be important benchmarks in this process.
Buntinx and van Gennep (2007, pp. 8) argue in this context for restoration of
the credibility of the orientation on a transcendent value, namely the welfare
of the client in professionals actions. Practice-oriented and practice-relevant
research as part of the training offered by Fontys OSO and this lectorate should
also be engaged with this theme: What is it exactly, the welfare of the client, and
how might professionals limit it through their actions, or indeed enhance it?
Support
Slowly but surely over the past few decades the deficit approach which stressed
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The Importance of Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
organisations can therefore engage with other general or specialist
organisations (such as local authorities, businesses, GPs) with a view to
improving the functioning and quality of life of the disabled person.Support takes individual and changing circumstances into consideration,
remains flexible and is offered with varying intensity. The persons self-
determination is respected and his /her opportunities to make choices
fostered.
The consequences for professionals of the new thinking on support are that
their actions cannot be seen as isolated (within the walls of the treatment
room or institution) and fragmented activities (confined to their own
discipline), but in partnership with other people involved (professionals and
non-professionals) they should address the quality of life of the disabled
person (Buntinx and Bijwaard, 2004, pp.10-11). The daily experience of
disabled people shows that this orientation still cannot be taken for
granted.
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Chapter 3
The Research Programme
Introduction
A relevant, sustainable and transparent research plan for this lectorate will
be produced in close consultation and through agreement with collaborating
partners. Much practice-oriented research is characterised by an emergent design.
This also seems to offer a good model for the development of this lectorate:
everything is not fixed from the outset and there is scope for contributions
from all members of the research group and participating partners, within the
frameworks they have drawn up. The other three lectorates at Fontys OSO are
both complementary and supporting:
the Lectorate in Internationalisation and Inclusive Education headed by Dr.
Chris Lloyd;
the Lectorate in Evaluative Performance headed by Dr. Anita Blonk;the Lectorate in Professional Values in Critical Dialogue headed by Dr. Gaby
Jacobs.
The lectorate will also develop a very close partnership with the Research
and Development Department of Heliomare, with the aim of improving
and strengthening the support and guidance offered to students from an
interdisciplinary perspective. This interdisciplinary perspective assumes that
everyone involved will develop an interprofessional working ethos and so it is
emphatically linked to personal meaning-making, commitment and motivation
(Meads and Ashcroft, 2005). Structures are concerned with what, when, by
whom and where; personal meaning-making by professionals starts with why
and what for, so it covers the dimensions of professional practice that are based
on values (Ibid.). It is becoming ever more important in education, health care
and social services that methods and interventions used are described properly
and that current methods of working are based on the gathering of practice-
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
oriented evidence. There is an opportunity here for the schools belonging to theHelioskoop Foundation to achieve educational practices that are evidence-based
in a number of essential areas (van Yperen and Veerman, 2008).
As well as conducting practice-oriented research, the lectorate will prioritise
participation in relevant regional, national and international research and other
networks. We will also collaborate closely and coordinate our activities with
teaching staff on the Fontys OSO Masters courses. With support from the WEC
Council and in dialogue with our partners, the research findings will be evaluated
for their relevance to other organisations for special and mainstream education
and rehabilitation. For the Helioskoop students, for instance, the research
projects and implementation of findings could contribute to their increasing
social participation and inclusion.
Method of Working
The research programme of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary
and Interagency Collaboration will be finalised therefore in close collaboration
with all of the partners and members of the research group who are involved.Questions and practical problems in the education and guidance practice of the
participating schools which require clarification, intervention, development or
change will be identified by the people involved, through a process of dialogue
oriented on practice, as bumpy moments or critical professional situations. In
the same way, that is by approaching Fontys OSO teaching staff through their
team leaders, use will be made of their expertise, knowledge, and experience
gained (for example, from teaching on the Masters courses, supporting schools
and supervising their students practice-oriented research) for the design and
development of the research programme. With the education professionals of
the partner organisations who are taking Masters in Special Educational Needs
at Fontys OSO and with the teaching staff supervising their practice-oriented
research, we will investigate whether, and if so how, their research activities
could benefit the activities of the lectorate and vice versa, and whether they could
be integrated. In other words the approach we have chosen aims to develop the
research programme from the questions and problems that emerge from the
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The Research Programme
educational practice of the various partner organisations and to connect the
development of theory and practice. This method of working seems to be the
most suitable approach to achieve the objectives formulated for lectorates inhigher professional education (SKO, foundation for knowledge-construction in
higher professional education, 2008):
knowledge-construction;
teachers professional development
implementation in curricula; and
dissemination of knowledge to and from the economy and society.
Collective Ambitions
Ambitions of Fontys OSO
To integrate training, research and organisational development through
interactive forms of construction, sharing and safeguarding of knowledge with
all relevant stakeholders. This includes:
Testing, developing and disseminating knowledge that is relevant to practice
and forms of knowledge-construction for special education, where teacher
educators and students work closely with the partner schools which have aformal and ongoing association with the lectorate.
Making a contribution to the further development of a framework of
educational theory and teaching methods specific to special education for
the Masters in Special Educational Needs course.
Connecting the individual development of teacher educators, students and
professionals in the partner organisations and the development of Fontys
OSO as a training organisation in the special education sector.
The four lectorates of Fontys OSO will work closely together to enable these
ambitions to be realised.
Ambitions of the Helioskoop Foundation
To develop its employees professional skills by doing practice-oriented and
practice-relevant research.
To strengthen the teaching and services offered to students, their parentsand external clients.
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
To provide a sound basis for its own teaching practices by, among otherthings, establishing how effective its methods, programmes etc. are.
To develop into a learning organisation where evidence-based practices arean important quality criterion.
Ambitions of Heliomare Research and Development
To embed the research being done in Heliomare even more firmly into the
organisation.
To further shape and strengthen the social relevance of its research.
To make the relevance of research to Heliomares students visible.
To disseminate research findings widely.
Ambitions of the WEC Council
To develop good practices, both by developing partnerships between
higher professional education institutions and education practitioners, and
in the field of practice-oriented and practice-relevant research by education
professionals, which is transferable to other organisations.
Ambitions of the Lectorate in Interprofessional,
Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
For this lectorate the ambitions outlined above mean:
Systematic knowledge-construction through our own long-term research
programme in the interdisciplinary collaboration research domain and the
three subfields (peripatetic supervision, behaviour and learning disability,
and transition). Questions that could guide the research:
- What exactly is meant by interdisciplinary collaboration?
- How do professionals distinguish differences with multidisciplinary
collaboration?
- What are the conditions for making a success of interdisciplinary
collaboration for the client, and for the professionals and organisations
involved (win-win situation)?
- How do organisations design interdisciplinary collaboration?
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The Research Programme
- What is the relationship between interdisciplinary and inter-institutional
collaboration?
- What competences do professionals need to work effectively andefficiently together across different disciplines?
- How do professionals master these competences?
Intensive collaboration with the Heliomare Research and Development
Department.
Offering the staff of, both Helioskoop and Fontys OSO, an opportunity to
train themselves to do practice-oriented and practice-relevant research so
that they can then move on to doing their own research.
Development of research programmes that are meaningful to a developing
professional practice, firstly in the schools and services of the Helioskoop
Foundation, but later also in other education organisations.
Making a meaningful contribution to the professional development of
education professionals working for the Helioskoop Foundation and
teaching staff working for Fontys OSO.
Making a contribution to developing the curriculum for the Masters courses
at Fontys OSO.Disseminating examples of good practice, innovative methods of working
and well-founded interventions through presentations, lectures, publications
and film material.
Encouraging all Helioskoop Masters students to specifically incorporate
interdisciplinary collaboration as an integral aspect of their practice-oriented
research.
Strengthening the research potential of the lectorate encouraging Masters
students from Helioskoop who are studying at Fontys to link their research
where possible to one of the three subfields is an innovative approach
that we have adopted. Four research groups can be distinguished among
the Masters students: peripatetic supervision, behaviour, transition and a
general research themes group. Both Fontys and Helioskoop stand to gain
from the proposed method of working because of the amount of data
that will become available through this collaborative model. This could
be described as meta-triangulation, because the Masters students gather
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Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
data using a broad gamut of instruments in the different contexts of theHelioskoop Foundation.
Encouraging Fontys OSO teaching staff in all Masters Special EducationalNeeds courses to pay more attention to the theme of interdisciplinary
collaboration: interdisciplinary collaboration presumes interdisciplinary
training and probably also more and more interdisciplinary research. The
necessary support to achieve this could come from this lectorate and the
research group. The educational content for the interdisciplinary collaboration
theme will take shape over time. This assumes close collaboration between
Fontys OSO teaching staff and members of the research group, with the
lector taking a leading role. Fellow students, future students and lecturers
at Fontys OSO can make use of this, so that the connections and the main
themes in the lectorate will become visible.
External partners
The lectorate will seek out links with one or more research universities.
The starting point for a potential collaboration will be this lectorates
research field: interprofessional, interdisciplinary and interagency
collaboration. Enquiries will be made into the possibility of linking up withthe Supporting Communication research programme of Professor van
Balkom, who is about to be appointed to the Endowed Chair in Supporting
Communication at Radboud University. For children and young people with
a disability, especially children with a communication disability, supporting
communication is a condition for learning and participation and so we see
this theme as complementary to the research in our research group
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Chapter 4
Practice-oriented Research
Introduction
Rotmans, at the time Professor in Integrated Assessment at Maastricht University,
asked himself this question: What is an innovative university? And the answer
that he gave: At the very least a university that engages with innovative
developments in science and society (Rotmans, 2003). The Netherlands
Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (HBO-Raad) defined bringing about
connections between science and society and between theory and professional
practice as a core task for higher professional education (HBO-Raad, 2008). After
all universities of applied sciences educate professionals who take leading roles
in key positions in certain professions, where they have to innovate and bring
about lasting change.
In addition, stakeholders in education, care and social services (such asinspectorates, financiers, client organisations and parents) increasingly require
these professionals to be able to explain why use certain methods in their
professional practice and not others. They are also expected to be able to make
statements about the effectiveness of their day-to-day practice which are based
on evidence (van Yperen and Veerman, 2008). The professional practices of
practitioners who have been educated at higher professional level should, in
short, be evolving towards more evidence-based practice(Ibid.). This requires a
different outlook on the part of the professionals on their daily routines (Leijnse,
Hulst and Vroomans, 2007). This emphasis on improvement and innovation of
a particular professional practice, by making the professional on the shop floor
jointly responsible for the evidence on which it is based and for implementation
of the new practice can take two forms:
top-down implementation of interventions that have proven effectiveness
in research settings; and
bottom-up research into interventions that are being used on a regular basis(van Yperen and Veerman, 2008).
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Van Yperen and Veerman say of the second approach that it is far less welldeveloped in research andunderutilised in professional practice. The challenge
is to gather practice-oriented evidence, evidence from the shop floor obtainedthrough research. They call this kind of research practice-driven research into
effects. The practice, for example the daily work of a teacher in class, is central
to this and the research instrument is one element among the teachers methods
and professional practices (Ibid.).
Practice-oriented Research
The term practice-driven research could result in too limited an interpretation of
the way staff in a lectorate in the end decide which themes they will and which, at
least for the time being, they will not study. That is why in this lectorate we have
opted for the term practice-oriented research, as defined by the Netherlands
Association of Universities of Applied Sciences:
Practice-oriented research . is rooted in professional practice and
contributes to the improvement of and innovation in that professional
practice. Knowledge and insights are generated, and useable products,designs and concrete solutions for practical problems are produced. The
research is usually multi- or transdisciplinary and embedded in a range
of internal and external organisational associations, while the scientific
reliability and validity of the research itself is preserved. The research is
closely linked with the teaching by contributing to teaching activities,
the professional development of teachers and curriculum reform. As the
research is relevant to and has an impact on professional practice,
education and wider society, the knowledge is disseminated and
published through many different channels and addressed to diverse
target groups.
(HBO-Raad, 2008, p. 7).
This definition makes clear that the task of the lectorate goes much further
than simply doing research. The lector and members of the research group are
also responsible for teaching activities, professional development of colleagues,
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Practice-oriented Research
reform of the curriculum, and the construction, sharing and dissemination
of knowledge, methods of working and products. As far as methodology is
concerned, there is not necessarily any distinction between practice-orientedresearch and other forms of scientific research, but it does have a different bias
and different objectives (Ibid.).
Dialogue with the Work Field
Those working in the field also expect higher professional education to play
a more active role in broadening knowledge production and making the links
between knowledge production and application more flexible (Leijnse, Hulst and
Vrooman, 2007). An example of this is the recent development of our Masters
course in Special Educational Needs with its emphasis on students doing practice-
oriented research. Another example is the co-financing of this lectorate by the
Helioskoop Foundation and the WEC Council. This trend presents education
professionals in the twenty-first century and the institutions that are responsible
for their initial, in-service and further training with the challenge to define
the professional role of the modern education professional. Leijnse, Hulst and
Vrooman (2007, p.1) suggest focusing mainly on:reflection on the effectiveness of working methods being used;
inquisitiveness about knowledge about the profession;
a bias toward constantly innovating practice; and
greater involvement in processes of knowledge production and
application.
This way of thinking is in keeping with international developments in recent
decades which describe the education professional as a critically reflective
practitioner (Carr and Kemmis, 1986), the teacher as researcher (Stenhouse,
1975), and the teacher as change agent. The notion of teachers as jointly
responsible for educational reform, change agents therefore, goes back even to
Dewey (Cobb, 2001). The education of teachers would seem for these reasons
to be ready for a reappraisal, in which:
increasingly training courses can no longer confine themselves to
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offering an initial qualification in the profession, they also have to play arole in initiating a life-long learning process that the new professionalism
demands. It is partly because of this that there has been a shift in thecontent of initial professional training courses toward more reflective
skills, inquisitiveness about knowledge, and the capacity to acquire
knowledge in a systematic way (to do research) and to apply it
(Leijnse, Hulst and Vrooman, 2007, p. 1).
The Rise of a New Professionalism
An important aspect of the new professionalism, namely its systematic bias
toward evidence-based innovation of ones own professional practice, has
definitely placed practice-oriented research by professionals on the agenda of
higher professional education. Seven of the ten members of the research group in
the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration
come from professional practice, working for the Helioskoop foundation. Their
participation in the research group is in line with a trend in higher professional
education to encourage education professionals to acquire research competences
and competences for managing change (Gerrickhauzen, 2007). More specifically,Fontys OSO has developed this into a Masters in Special Educational Needs, in
which emphasis is placed on interactive forms of knowledge-construction and
interactive professionalism. Teachers are increasingly expected to be able to
resolve routine and less common problems in their professional practice using
well-founded systematic and methodical approaches (Ibid.). This assumes that
they have top practice-oriented research skills and that they are able to use
knowledge from educational sciences and related disciplines to think up and test
out solutions (Ibid., p. 22).
In the learning and research curriculum of the Masters in Special Educational Needs
course at Fontys OSO, the main focus is on equipping education professionals
to master this new professionalism and the research and other competences
that go with it. For that reason the practice-oriented research forming part of
the Masters courses is directed at knowledge that a particular profession will
be able to use; it arises out of professional and social needs; it is directed at
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professional development and innovation in professional practice; and it meets
accepted international methodological standards. This lectorate, together with
the other three lectorates at Fontys OSO, will actively work to help to realise thisambition.
Focus on the Implementation Process
The greatest challenge for practice-oriented research probably lies in the area of
its relevance to practice, that is the potential impact the research could have on
improving and reforming professional practice. This demands, as indicated earlier,
that explicit attention be paid to the implementation process (Education Council,
2003). One of the things that the literature on improvement and innovation in
education (for example, Evans, 1996; Senge et al., 2000; Pring, 2000; and Fullan,
2001) teaches us is that when changing established practice in education:
above all it is about teachers thinking, acting and cooperating among
themselves and with other professionals, in other words, interdisciplinary
collaboration;
all education practice is characterised by complexity, dynamism and a
context-specific design;the direction of the reform or change is increasingly related to research
outcomes, but that empirical-analytical research is not sufficient in itself,
precisely because of the context-specific nature of education; and
not taking the specific context into account could well lead to the change
or innovation failing.
Rotmans (2003) therefore argued that researchers should participate in social
networks more than they do now, in which knowledge is constructed in
co-production with other actors in the social field. The collaboration between
Fontys OSO, the Helioskoop Foundation and the WEC Council in the Lectorate
in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration could
serve as an excellent case study of how this kind of collaboration develops in
practice and what results it delivers. The participation in the research group of
practitioners from the Helioskoop schools and Heliomare Rehabilitation andtheir
ties with everyday professional practice could support the implementation of
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new activities, procedures and methods through a bottom-up process, therebyreducing the risk of failure.
Quality of Practice-oriented Research
The excellence of the practice-oriented research of this lectorate will therefore
mainly be measured against the relevance and impact of the research in
professional practice, education and society as a whole (HBO-Raad, 2008, p. 7).
The same report also makes this point:
evaluation of research from these perspectives is still pretty well in its
infancy for that matter everywhere else in the world. The emphasis in
quality systems elsewhere (for example in English, Australian and Dutch
universities) has up to now always been mainly on the quality of the
research in the sense of its scientific and academic impact. That impact
has traditionally been mainly measured in terms of publications, citations
and peer reviews. People working in these systems and countries have
meanwhile been looking for indicators and evaluation methods that place
the significance and impact of the research in a broader perspective. TheNetherlands is reasonably well in front in this (Ibid.).
The practice-oriented research of the Lectorate in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary
and Interagency Collaboration will in any case focus on:
current teaching and guidance practices of the partners who are collaborating
in the Helioskoop Foundation;
gathering practice-oriented evidence on the participating schools and from
the organisation providing peripatetic supervision;
describing the methods and interventions that are used in the day-to-day
teaching and guidance practices of the partner organisations;
theoretical underpinning of these methods and interventions, for instance
through a literature review;
developing and implementing evidence-based practices, in both Helioskoop
and Fontys OSO;
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Practice-oriented Research
describing the competences that professionals need to collaborate
successfully across disciplines;
improving and strengthening practice-oriented research, in the teachingand other services at the Helioskoop schools and on the Masters in Special
Educational Needs courses at Fontys OSO;
identifying and analysing forms of support and guidance developed
elsewhere for the three target groups we have distinguished, assessing
their relevance for teaching and guidance practices in the different partner
organisations.
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References
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The Lectoraat in Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary and
Interagency Collaboration came about as the result of a
special collaboration between Fontys OSO, a post-graduate
teacher training college offering Masters courses in Special
Educational Needs provision, Heliomare Education a special
school providing education for students with physical
disabilities and the WEC Council, which advocates the interests
of schools for special education in the Netherlands.
Heliomare Education is part of the Helioskoop Foundation,
which comprises three other special schools for students
with physical, learning or multiple disabilities, ranging in
age from 4-20 years: de Alk in Alkmaar, de Zevensprongin
Beverwijk and de Ruimtein Bergen.
A Lectoraat is a research group at a university of applied sciences, consisting of lecturers and
led by the lector. Its aim is to connect higher education curricula, continuing professionaldevelopment and professional practice by undertaking practice-oriented research.
The research domain of this lectoraat is interprofessional, interdisciplinary and interagency
collaboration. The partners working together in this lectoraat have distinguished three
fields on which the practice-oriented research should be focused:
peripatetic supervision;
support and guidance for students who exhibit challenging behaviour and who
have moderate or severe learning disabilities; and
transition of students with physical, and sometimes multiple, disabilities to various
modes of living, working, leisure time and participation in the community.
A distinguishing feature of this research group is the participation of staff, working
in the special schools of the Helioskoop Foundation or in the rehabilitation centre of
Heliomare, in practice-oriented research. The other members of the research group work
as lecturers at Fontys OSO.